Family name origins & meanings
- English : from a pejorative derivative of the personal name Giles.
- English and French : from an assimilated form of the personal name Gislehard, a compound of Old High German gīsel ‘hostage’, ‘pledge’, ‘noble youth’ (see Giesel) + hard ‘hardy’. This name is also found in Switzerland, whence it may have been brought to the U.S.